Russian President Vladimir Putin said here Saturday the country's top priority now is to make the Far East region one of its socio-economic development centers.

"Industrial production increased by 5 percent last year in the Far East region, while the growth in the whole country reached only 0.3 percent in 2015," said Putin at the ongoing Eastern Economic Forum.

At a plenary session themed "Opening up the Russian Far East," the president said that over 1 trillion rubles (15 million U.S. dollars) were attracted to the region last year.

According to Putin, the most important indicator of the ongoing changes in the Far East is positive demographic dynamics.

"The population has grown in the Khabarovsk, Sakhalin, Yakutia and Chukotka areas for the first time in the last 25 years," he said, adding that the birth rate there is higher than the death rate for the third year in a row, and the migration outflow has decreased by 3.5 times in the first half of 2016.

Putin said that now it's very important to maintain the increasing population.

The second Eastern Economic Forum opened Friday, and 2,500 guests and investors from 28 countries attended.

Source : XINHUA